


Certifiably Perfect

by Djaeka



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Miraculous Ladybug Pandemic Relief Zine, Pandemic Relief Zine, Post-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Post-Reveal Pre-Relationship, Under the Same Sun Zine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-20
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:40:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27647633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Djaeka/pseuds/Djaeka
Summary: "Aren’t you going to eat that?" Tikki asked, floating over by Plagg to watch their kids.Plagg sat, holding the last financier, and grinning like Marinette had."I’m waiting for the finale, when everything collapses."Adrien’s head whipped around to glare at Plagg. The cat just grinned wider at the extra attention."I trust your kid’s skills, Sugarcube. But my kid touched it, it’s gonna be a massive, beautiful mess."Adrien hissed at Plagg to shut up, but Tikki put a tiny paw over Plagg’s mouth and smiled sweetly."Just watch."
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 26
Kudos: 264





	Certifiably Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> This piece was released as part of the 2020 Miraculous Ladybug Pandemic Relief Zine and is a collab with a piece by the AMAZING FizzArt! Thank you to everyone who contributed to the relief fund and please go look at Fizzy's Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/fizzart.draws/

“Adrien will be working with Marinette.”

Mme. Bustier had Marinette’s attention immediately, and Marinette had Adrien’s. He watched her process a moment of shock before her mouth split into an unholy level of glee.

_Marinette. With an artistic assignment. With Adrien._

His model-appropriate smile was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain as he met her eye, and she winked at him. They were an _unstoppable_ team.

The rest of the class seemed to know it, too, even if they didn’t quite understand why. Rose and Juleka had sighed dreamily at one another. Alya looked like she almost broke her neck trying to gauge both of their reactions at the same time. Kim and Alix started frantically scream-whispering to one another about something, probably a bet. 

Their eyes pulled away from each other abruptly when a balled up piece of paper smacked Marinette in the back of the head. Adrien looked on curiously as she opened it, turned bright red, and whipped her head around to glare at a winking Ivan.

He couldn’t help but glance at Lila, either, and her expression was worth the momentary distraction from Marinette. It was fairly obvious that Lila was interested in him, and just as obvious that she was mostly interested in his name. The sheer saccharine joy she oozed when she managed to get paired with him made his skin crawl. He’d definitely scrubbed a little harder than strictly necessary where she’d clung to him the last time. So watching as her eyes narrowed and mouth drew into a thin line when she heard the news of their pairings for the assignment was incredibly gratifying. Her lips were pressed so tightly that they’d gone stark white, only discernible by the thick layer of gloss smeared on them.

Marinette’s triumph, Lila’s fury, and the excited energy of the class was a pleasant daydream for the rest of the day, and it stayed with him, distracting enough that he didn’t notice was talking to him until she booped him on the nose.

“Sorry, what was that?”

“How did you want to do this? I’m totally game to do the report, but I’m pretty sure we both know how you and art mix.”

Adrien gasped loudly, adopting his best impression of a fainting lady. He fluttered his eyes at Marinette, ignored her eye roll, and put the back of his hand to his head. 

“I am _offended_ , Marinette. I have _one_ incident with a bottle of glitter-“

“You absolutely do not get to call _exploding an entire bottle-“_

_“-one incident-“_

“-open and directly into the ceiling fan, _somehow-“_

“-and you never let me forget it.”

“-I had glitter in my hair for _weeks,_ Adrien. In my backpack. In my notebooks. I turned in a paper that Friday that looked like a unicorn had written it. I’m going to hold that over you for the rest of our lives.”

Adrien glanced over, brows furrowed for a moment in case he’d missed something and Marinette was _actually_ angry about the glitter incident. But the delighted smile she wore whenever they bantered was present and Adrien breathed in relief. 

“Mari, you can hold that glitter over my head and shake it into my certifiably perfect hair.” 

The people they passed by gave them curious glances as Marinette doubled over, covering her mouth and trying not to audibly snort. 

By the time they reached the door of the Dupain-Cheng bakery, she’d managed to control her giggles enough to speak. Adrien smiled fondly down at her as he held the door open for Marinette to walk through. He waved briefly at Marinette’s parents, catching the offer to bring treats up and Marinette’s affirmative reply before they slipped through the back door up to the apartments above. 

Marinette opened the door, and Adrien’s shoulders dropped from their usual tensed location. He still hadn’t found a way to describe her home that wasn’t a cliche, it just made him think “warm and cozy” each time he walked in. 

Every surface had decoration of some sort; it was _lived in_ and welcoming. It didn’t hurt that it always seemed to smell like fresh baked bread either. 

They climbed the steps to Marinette’s room, opening their bags to allow the kwamis to fly free once the trapdoor had shut. Adrien threw his bag down at the foot of the chaise, flopping bonelessly onto it shortly after. 

He watched as Marinette put her things away, setting out a cookie for Tikki before turning back to him. 

“Okay kitten, what part of the project do you want?”

Adrien rolled to a sitting position, running through the assignment in his head. It _would_ be simple enough to just do the book work and let Marinette handle the more artistic section, but he really wanted to work _with_ her. 

It was really nice having Marinette treat Adrien like Ladybug treated Chat.

“Do you know what part you want?”

“Nope, don’t care. And we talked about this.” Marinette stretched her arms over her head. “Your opinions matter. You have just as many ideas as I do and you should get to use them.”

“Oh. Um. Okay. What about just working on each part together? That way I’m supervised and you can control the glitter, but it’s not quite as tedious. ”

Adrien felt his mouth go dry and resisted the urge to clear his throat as he waited for the answer.

Marinette shrugged, tilting her head. “Sure, sounds good to me. Want to start on the faerie door?”

“Is that actually okay? You’re alright with doing this together?”

“Yeah, it’s a good idea.”

“We can split up if you want.” His stomach flopped. He really hoped she wouldn’t actually take the offer.

“Nope, you said together, we’re doing it together.”

He nodded, feeling his stomach gradually unknot itself, and dropped to the floor to watch Marinette rummage through her supplies for things that might work for their assignment. Her voice drifted from the open closet door, muffled by the barrier.

“I still don’t really understand the connection, to be honest. I get why we would read about folk tales and faerie tales and old world stories. That makes sense. But actually _making_ a door seems like a jump.”

She dragged a large box to the center of the room and disappeared into the closet again while Adrien began to pull items from the box.

“Maybe Madame Bustier figured there were so many artistic people that we needed a hands-on project? It’s a little unusual but it's less boring than a report. I hope she’s aware that Rose’s door is going to be blindingly pink, though.”

Marinette lifted her eyebrows once in acknowledgement and dropped another box next to the first one. She flipped the lid open and pulled out several spools of wire. Adrien dove back into his own box, emerging with a bag of what looked like small tree branches.

“Hey, Marinette? Did you have any ideas for the door itself?”

Marinette didn’t look up, tossing the contents of the box aside as she responded. “Not really. I have a few ideas for decorations, but I figured if we had to we could buy a little dollhouse door from a shop.”

“I might have an idea if you’ve got a small saw.”

Marinette looked up. She stared at the sticks in his hand for a moment before pursing her lips and nodding.

“Yeah, I think I _saw_ one in the closet. It’s supposed to be used for wire, but it’ll probably work. I’ve got wood glue too.”

His head snapped up, a delighted grin forming as Marinette ducked into the closet to hide her face.

“Sounds perfect.”

Adrien began twisting and bending sticks into place, focusing on making a stable base for whatever interesting decoration Marinette thought was appropriate. He could see her twisting little wires into a filigree shape, but he quickly turned back to his own part of the door.

The two of them worked in relative silence for a while, comfortable with the task at hand. By the time Tom wandered in with a plate of _financiers_ for them to share, Adrien had managed to glue the branches together into something resembling a door with braided edges. 

And he hadn’t glued his own hands together this time, either.

Adrien eyed the plate of treats warily. He loved Tom’s baking, but he’d once mentioned that anything with cheese in it was a particular favorite of his so he could make sure Plagg got fed too. 

It worked.

Really, really well.

It had the unfortunate side effect of guaranteeing that several treats each visit had a cleverly hidden cheese surprise inside. It was sweet and very kind, and he’d gotten blindsided by it one too many times. He’d taken to having Plagg sniff out the cheese like some sort of tiny truffle hunting pig. 

Cheese wasn’t a normal ingredient for _financiers_ , but Adrien had learned that Tom was an “experimenter”. And that he took great joy in inflicting those (normally delicious) experiments on Marinette’s friends. 

He glanced around for Plagg, eventually giving up and calling for him. “Hey Plagg, come find the cheese for me.” 

Adrien ignored the scoffing noise from his kwami, holding the plate out. Plagg sniffed at several of the pastries before zipping off with three of them clutched tightly to his chest as if he thought someone might take them from him. Adrien turned to the sound of Marinette laughing. 

“Yeah, laugh it up. You got the easy one.” He grabbed one of the remaining treats off the plate and shoved half of it in his mouth. 

Marinette reached for one of the cakes as well. “No, I got the _agreeable_ one. Tikki would have eaten pretty much anything. Plagg is just a drama queen.”

Adrien hummed his agreement as he chewed the soft, tender cake. Normally _financiers_ were too dry for him, calling for a strong espresso to balance out the sweetness and the crumbly texture. But Tom’s were perfect. A blend of dense and sweet, tempered by nutty almonds and brown butter. They were golden and light, and he could see where they’d originally gotten their name as these ones truly resembled tiny bricks of gold. He almost wondered what the ones with cheese were like.

Almost.

He shoved the remainder of the cake in his mouth before grabbing another, this time finding a tiny scoop of blueberry jam in the center. While eating, Adrien found himself watching Marinette work on decorations. 

He liked to watch her work on things. There was some adage about skill making someone beautiful, and while he was certain it wasn’t the only contributing factor he certainly found some truth in it. Each motion she made was sure, every piece went into place almost seamlessly. Her skill with everything she put her hands to was amazing.

Or maybe it was her confidence.

Over the past couple of months, after learning he was Chat and several rooftop non-dates (they were absolutely dates, there was food and flirting involved and he was definitely counting them), she’d managed to get more comfortable.

She could speak clearly, tease him regularly, it was basically like being behind the mask around her again. But so much better. 

Their initial one-sided reveal had left them on unequal footing and it _grated_ on him. He felt the urge to tell her bubbling under his skin with every pencil stroke behind him in class, every patrol, every late night hangout in her room. Dropping hints for her to figure him out had maybe not been his best idea, but he didn’t exactly regret it. Being able to see each other did wonders for their dynamic. 

It wasn’t exactly _romantic,_ the way he wanted. But he was a patient man.

And really, it was nothing short of amazing to get to be her partner. 

Adrien leaned forward to poke at the sticks, pleased to find the glue had set. He stood the door on its base and let go. 

“It stands!”

Marinette lifted her head, a smile breaking across her face. “Adrien, it’s adorable! Is it dry?”

“Yeah, you’re free to decorate.”

He slid the door toward her and leaned in. She scooted closer, moving the door back toward him. Adrien lifted an eyebrow. 

“I need you to lift this branch so I can twist this in.” She lifted several delicate twists of wire that looked like they might fall apart at any moment. Adrien nodded and moved to hold the branches out of the way. Her breath brushed the hairs of his neck when she leaned forward to weave the pieces in. 

“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Tikki asked, floating over by Plagg to watch their kids.

Plagg sat, holding the last financier, and grinning like Marinette had.

“I’m waiting for the finale, when everything collapses.”

Adrien’s head whipped around to glare at Plagg. The cat just grinned wider at the extra attention.

“I trust your kid’s skills, Sugarcube. But _my_ kid touched it, it’s gonna be a massive, beautiful mess.”

Adrien hissed at Plagg to shut up, but Tikki put a tiny paw over Plagg’s mouth and smiled sweetly. 

“Just watch.”

Adrien turned back to the door, and watched Marinette twisting the wire around the branch he held. 

“Okay, we have to let go at the same time. Ready?”

With a nod, they both breathed in and let go of their pieces together.

It fell.

But it fell into place.

Branch slotted into wire, twine supported stem, and gravity locked everything together in perfect harmony. 

Adrien frowned. It looked like a strong wind could blow it over. He reached out and poked it. It barely moved. He sat back, tilting his head to the side. A moment of studying it and he recognized that the branches he’d bent into place earlier had completely stabilized the decorative work Marinette had added. Creation and destruction, in balance.

Marinette chuckled, holding a fist out. _“Bien joué?”_

Adrien beamed at her and blindly bumped her fist with his own. 

“Okay! I have another part to work on, could you do glitter and add some flowers to the wire?”

Adrien turned to see her holding out a tiny sprig of fake bluebells and a bottle of glitter.

“You _really_ want to hand me glitter again?”

“Yup, I trust you.” He caught the bottle when she tossed it at him, smiling.

He couldn’t see what else she was working on as he wound the tiny flowers into Marinette’s wire and sprinkled glitter as delicately as possible over the sticks. His focus made it feel like hours had passed before he sat back and declared it finished. 

He’d probably never felt happier than when she praised his work.

Marinette bumped Adrien with a shoulder. “Should we start the report?”

His mouth twisted as he thought.

“Nah. We’ve done a lot and we have a week to finish. Plus, if I have more schoolwork to do, I can tell Nathalie to schedule some time where I have to be here.” 

She snorted. “You’re just using me for the treats.”

“You’re absolutely right, you’ve caught me.” 

Adrien gave Marinette a lopsided grin as she snorted again before standing. She brushed off her leg and grabbed their empty plate, dropping it on her desk. 

“What do you want to do instead?” 

“Mecha Strike?”

If there was one thing he had come to realize, it was that Marinette didn’t stop being competitive just because he was Adrien. So when they’d had a playful argument about who could focus better through distraction, of course she’d challenged him. Not to spar, they did that frequently enough as part of training. 

No, she’d proposed they each play a round while the other tried to distract them enough to lose.

Which is how Adrien found himself on the floor, desperately trying to focus on beating his opponent while Marinette gently scratched her nails along his scalp. She’d honed in on the weak spot weeks back and he simultaneously adored and lamented her discovery. 

It was incredibly unfortunate that Marinette was able to keep her focus through having her ribs tickled because he was woefully behind in points. He managed to scrape out a few wins to keep his numbers high, but it was a close call.

By the time he had to leave, his smile was starting to make his jaw hurt. He kissed Marinette’s cheek, pleased with how her cheeks pinked and pretending his own face didn’t feel just as warm. 

Adrien waved and slipped into his car to head home, stomach full of treats and deliriously happy. 

His home was no less cold than normal, but he barely noticed it. The warmth from Marinette and her family carried him through his evening routine like wrapping him in a blanket fresh from the dryer. Forming a barrier between himself and the stillness of the large house.

But when he got to his empty room he felt the cold penetrating that cocoon of warmth. His shoulders tensed again as he stared around the dark.

Adrien shook his head, sniffing once before grabbing his bag to sort through what he needed for school the next day. His hand bumped a small, hard object. 

Pulling the little square from the bag, he realized it was a card decorated with Marinette’s handwriting. 

Soft smile in place, he found the edge of the card and yanked it open.

And jumped for the third time that day when the tiny card _exploded,_ sending rainbow colored glitter in every direction. 

Adrien’s jaw dropped and he watched the tiny pieces drifting to the floor. He looked down at the card. 

**_You are “glitter”ally the best!_ **

**_p.s. I hope I got it in your certifiably perfect hair._ **


End file.
